Grey fog, thick mist
Cold and moist
Wet drops stifle
Beaded spiderweb
Stillness
Suddenly birdsong
Morning gathers
Sun breaks through
Soft and gleaming
Warmth gives strength
To the airs.
Author: artbychristinemallabandbrown
I'm an artist based at the Spode factory site in Stoke on Trent. I paint, draw and create digital art. Contact me at mallabandbrown@aol.com
Catello Argonese, island of Ischia, bay of Naples
Today we had a virtual sketch tour of the Catello Argonese with urban sketchers Stoke-on-Trent.
I didn’t wake up in time to do the mornings sketching, so I took a screenshot and worked from that.
It’s just a 6B pencil sketch. On cartridge paper in an A4 sketchbook. I enjoyed mooching round, trying to fit the shapes together. It’s a bit like a jigsaw puzzle.
Anyway I’m pleased with the result.
X
Backgrounds
I’m working on a background to place my four images on fro my illustration course.
I will be cutting this up into four. I think the cat and the man will be at the bottom and the tree and the house at the top. My idea is that it will be November fifth. Bonfire night. The man is looking for the cat, which is scared. The house and the tree are going to be at the top. I will then colour round the blobs in black so that it’s nighttime. I might use fine liner pens to make the background black but with texture…
Got to decide portrait or landscape? What do you think?
X
Pots
I’ve bought you a present, said my hubby. I saw it and thought of you! How much did it cost? £5. OK, but we already have three teapots a coffee pot and a cafetiere….? But I wanted to buy you a present.
I got you a glass ornament too. A tree shaped thing with two colourful parrots on branches comes out of a bag. But the cats will break it! I found it a safe space.
I know I’ve got no taste, he said, but I wanted to show you I love you.
OK, thank you, I appreciate it. The coffee set will reside in the summerhouse. (With the spiders).
Masks
From Monday people will have to wear masks in shops here in England. That doesn’t bother me, me and my hubby have both been wearing face coverings of one thing or another since lockdown began.
What does bother me is the outcry against them. A Tory MP tore up his membership card because of it.
Now our Prime Minister is saying it could all be OK by Christmas!
This is after over 45000 deaths that have been attributed to Covid 19 since it arrived here.
I’ve had a couple of family members that have had it. One is still affected a couple of months later. They told me it’s nothing like a touch of flu. That it’s really bad, and they didn’t get it badly.
Now I’ve got one friend telling me it’s all fake, not real, all a conspiracy! Another said she wouldn’t have a vaccination or allow her daughter to have it. Why? Why would you put your granny, or uncle, or child at risk because you don’t believe in a virus? Why would you not wear a mask to protect others?
And why would you not take a vaccine if it was safe? When Edward Jenner came up with a vaccine for Smallpox maybe the people in his day were against it. But why now? How many people are alive today because they were vaccinated. In this age of Fake news we need to use our brains. Not believe the first thing that someone says on the Internet. We need to fact check maybe.
But most of all we need to be safe and wear a mask and wash our hands.
X
Carrier bags
I was asked to give some carrier bags to the local food bank today. I’m very bad at remembering to take bags with me when I go shopping and I didn’t want to throw them away to go in landfill.
I handed them over to a friend outside the local supermarket. She had started a couple of years ago getting almost out of date, unsold food, and dry goods. But as austerity had increased and now the devastating effect of covid 19,she has found herself getting food for people seven days a week! She is a volunteer and decided she must do something as the local Councillor is not at all helpful.
I asked her how she copes, she’s been ill recently, she says she just has to. She cannot give up on people.
I wish I had her commitment. All I did was hand over a few carrier bags. I have to ask why people are in this situation. How have we got to this. The sixth wealthiest country in the world? But cruel to people in poverty. Who are seen as useless and not worth the money. Another Councillor has called people from my city ‘peasants’ this week. Remind me to tug my forelock!
Fifteen year old sketchbook
I found an old sketchbook I used to take to a drawing group about 15years ago. I used to concentrate on portraits.
This was at a local pub and over a few years the group grew. It couldn’t last sadly as the pub closed down.
It was good to find these today. I need more sketchbooks though!
X
Sleep
I must sleep
I must dream
Stay calm
Lay softly
Feel relaxed
Breathing deeply
Taking time
To rest quietly.
I must sleep
I need rest
I must find my dreamworld.
Will I rest
Or will it be another sleepless night?
I lie counting sheep.
When did I become captain sensible?
I’d like to be silly, daft, funny, have a laugh. But recently I’ve had to become, as my hubby calls me ‘ captain sensible’.
The thing is I’m his carer. I don’t like thinking about it but he has mental health issues and I have to keep a level head to keep him safe. But I don’t like it. I have to negotiate with him when he has manic ideas. I have to think through what he can do. I sometimes feel like a jailer. And yet I’m being sensible. I don’t think he should go and find a newt and put it in the pond, or buy another three bicycles to add to his collection of ten he already has. Or come home with another tree for our wooded garden. Some things are simple negotiation. Others are confusing. He buys ornaments we don’t need. He spends money in one particular shop on stuff that’s basically junk. But he’s happy. But they must see him coming… I worry about some of the things he declares he’s going to do. I won’t discuss them here. I can’t describe the anxiety he goes through every day, over things I would call trivial. I try and hold it all together and then live my life on top of that..
X
Round the corner
Today’s Urban sketchers challenge Stoke-on-Trent was ’round the corner’ so I drew the yard looking out of the back door.
The yard is full of hanging baskets and pots as you will have seen on a previous post. I guess I could have gone out and drawn the main road round the corner from my street. But this is a more pleasant view. Hard to draw all the leaves and flowers. You find yourself losing the detail as you draw more of them. I have to bring my mind back and fight against going into autopilot mode. Controlling where the pen moves instead of just scribbling.
X
